Venus Observed!

[hotspur]

Well it did not look too good this morning,but at 7.30 am thought I'd better put an effort in to get observatory ready-lots of frantic preparation (no PPPPP here today(prior,preparation,prevents,po or,performance).But managed to get two scopes combat ready,one with camera.

All I wanted was just one image of the historic event,well the clouds cleared right on 8.16 am! and have been able to witness and take photo's,I allowed my son to stay at home,and he is currently doing some sort of time lapse with his gear.He has been taking photos with phone camera held up to a 7 mm naglar which is through a ED 81 scope,and getting some good images.They will be uploaded to 'chatter box',and I discussed with him how captain Cook went to South Pacfic and all what happened,here now we can send those images in an instant anywhere in the world in a heart beat-poor old Cook,had a bad time getting all his data back to England back then,even wrecked the ship badly on the way back-makes internet drop out look not too bad!

Hope all IIS members have a great transit!

[BLiTZWiNG]

Great viewing here in Bris with my Eclipse Glasses, thanks Mike!

[pvelez]

I have a solar filter here at the office and a pair of binos.

I also thought there's be no joy in Sydney but the clouds do part briefly from time to time

Have now given most of the office a chance to see this as well. While I don't have any pictures, its a great opportunity to share the joy.

So cool to see this!

Pete

[koputai]

In cloudy Sydney my wife and I managed a quick look through a sucker hole about 8:40. Great stuff, at least we saw it!

I brought the ED80 and a photo tripod to work, and had a good view with a few of the guys through a hole that lasted about 6 or 7 minutes. Still hoping for a few more little chances. Another guy also brought an EQ Newt, but hasn't set it up because of the rain. The ED80 on a tripod is ideal for a quick plonk and look.

Good luck all.

Cheers,
Jason.

[traveller]

All went well until about 20 mins ago when the clouds arrived.
Managed to get some via my SPC900 on the 60mm AZ mount.
Bo

[hotspur]

good to hear all managing to get some sort of a look.Sorry to hear weather so awful down south.

Here is a couple of quick images of my son's set up,he is using his cam corder attached to mount,tracking the sun,ten second between frames.

The view through the 7 mm naglar is great,he held his phone up to it,and from I can see,so far-the images look better than what I'm getting with dslr attached to 103 ED Vixen.

Gotta go,busy ATM

[Poita]

Everyone at work has had a look through the glasses this morning. It is fun to share the joy!

[JethroB76]

After two days of WIND and rain, there's not a cloud in the sky down here in Tassie - binos and 12" scope are loving it :lol:

[PCH]

In the run up to this event here in good old sunny Perth we've had days upon days of wonderful clear skies and sunshine, while the rest of the country has been clouded over.

Now, on the day, while everyone else appears to be have at least a glimpse, - we are totally clouded over and raining.

Isn't it always the way? Bah humbug ! :mad2:

[JetDragon]

Getting brief but reasonably regular break in the cloud here on the Central Coast - managed to catch a short view at 8.17 at the commencement of ingress - then frustratingly nothing until 10.55 - have got other brief windows at 11.31 and 12.22 so managed to get some nice shots (of projected images). The windows of opportunity only last about 5 minutes but it's proving enough.

cheers

Dave

[GraemeT]

We had a brief period around 9am when there were a few cloud gaps, all less than a minute, and a few seconds at 1pm so far in northern Sydney

[casstony]

We had broken cloud for a few hours in the Latrtobe Valley, enough to get some good Ha views. I also attached a dslr camera behind a scope for the first time (megrez 88) and got some decent snapshots in white light.

[gary]

All four seasons in one day here in the north of Sydney but spent considerable
time observing it through a C8 from Carlingford between breaks in the cloud
and even the occasional sprinkle of rain.

Also easy to spot naked eye through the IceInSpace eclipse glasses once clear of the
clouds.

Nice sunspot activity too.

[hotspur]

looks good!,good to share the view with other people-phone is starting to ring-people turning up from town,and enjoying the view-and they getting some snap shots holding eye phones up to eye piece.

Will post some more images soon.Son's data collection seems to be going well.I thought Venus would be further across the sun by now.Wait for 2.37 pm when a qantas 747 flies over the Blackbutt range.

[dannat]

Pretty clear here for the most part, there is some cloud in & out ,
Showed about 30+ thru the PST at woodend, had an appt at local primary but it was cloudy around 11, cleared at 12:20, hot thru about 60 or more kids I reckon, one little kid lined up 5 times
Cloudy here again now & the wind is freezing, hopefully I'll get some shots when it starts it's departure

[Paddy]

Had a great run til about 10am using Lunt ha filter on ed80. About 9.30 saw a very bright strip open up on solar disc to south of Venus for about 5 min. Did anyone else notice this? Last time I saw one of these it was a CME. Would be pretty stoked to have seen transit & CME in one go. Patchy cloud now. It it's been a great day. Hope to see final contacts.

[Poita]

Just got back from a local school, had kids lined up behind the scope and we managed to get everyone a glimpse of the transit before the clouds cut us off at 2:05.
Some great questions from the kids (year 5 & 6) and an incredible amount of interest.
The ice in space glasses got a thrashing as well.

Had a great time!

[MortonH]

Had frequent but short gaps in the clouds where I am. Missed first contact then got a couple of minutes that ended just before second contact. Had some decent cloud gaps around maximum then complete cloud and rain for third and fourth contacts. But am delighted to see as much as I did when I didn't expect to see anything. What an awesome spectacle. And even a snapshot to remember it by (posted in the solar system forum).

[pgc hunter]

Clouds actually broke up about half an hour ago! I've been projecting it onto my bedroom ceiling using my Stellarvue 60mm finder. Works a treat :D

[traveller]

Managed to photo some egress, will upload once I had a go a processing.
YEAH baby.:lol:
Bo

[JimmyH155]

Fabulous through my PST.:D Not many sunspots though. There was a group of them around the middle of the sun about 5 of them in a roughly triangular pattern. None near Venus. Cloud came in at 10:00, so I abandoned it and went to work:(

[gary]

The transit is getting a lot of media coverage. Certainly far, far more than the
2004 event.

Yahoo 7 News is running a story today about a road worker in Mataranka, Northern Territory,
putting a back hoe through fibre optic cables yesterday which Telstra said caused internet,
mobile phone and landline services in parts of the Territory to go out.

Part of the NASA live coverage of the transit had been planned to be streamed from an
Alice Springs school where Columbus State University had set up imaging equipment.

A mathematics teacher at the Centralian Middle School said the webcast had
been working intermittently whilst communications were being restored but that
nevertheless pupils at the school were excited to be part of a global event organised by NASA.

He reported that there had also been occasional been high cloud over Alice Springs
that at times obstructed the view.

Story here -
http://au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/latest/13882003/transit-of-venus-webcast-in-chaos/

[Mariposa]

I didn't have the right equipment for imaging, so I focused in showing the transit to as many people as possible with my little Coronado PST mounted on a regular camera tripod, first stop was my son's class, where he did some "show and tell" explaining what was happening, he is mad about astronomy and was begging me for weeks to take the scope to his school for show and tell...what better opportunity than this?.

The children loved it! I spent a lot more time there than I expected. Next step, a public viewing organised by the local astronomy club at the wharf.....it went very well, we promoted the viewing days before and a lot of people turned to see it.

I don't regret not having photos, I knew there will be tons of awesome pics online. I left everything for the last moment and didn't find a suitable filter for my 10'' sct and don't have the right gear to fit the camera to the coronado.

[alistairsam]

Quite a large turnout at the Melbourne Observatory.
Had a Look through most scopes including a few PST's.
Some nice projection setups, plenty of amateur scopes, the tours through the big observatory scopes were booked out.
Hope I'm not infringing on any copyrights here, I don't mean to.

[hotspur]

WOW!,it has been such a wonderful day.great to all the wonderful results-the best being-getting out there and sharing our wonderful hobby,we had some neighbours and friends all turn up and enjoy this treat.

That one child that came back to an IIS member's scope 5 or 6 times to view,is where I was 40 years ago-once well bittern by the astronomy bug-it will come back later in life.Makes it all worth while having all this gear for a unique event.

Here is an image from 2.24 pm today,through 4 inch Vixen apo refractor with a Canon 50d.

[AdrianF]

Cloudless until 7ish then clouds rolled in until 1ish missed it completely have to wait until 2117 :)

Adrian

[kustard]

Managed to get about 30 minutes all up today during work for some observing. I had three of the IIS solar glasses with me and showed about 10 to 15 people the transit in progress. It was great to see their interest in it :)